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When the opportunity arose in 2007 to purchase and protect the former Finch, Pruyn & Co. lands, we knew we had to act. At 161,000 acres, the magnitude of this forest and fresh water conservation effort is significant. In addition to providing essential habitat for wildlife and featuring 16,000 acres of wetlands, 300 lakes and ponds, 90 mountain peaks, and 415 miles of rivers and streams, these lands touch people’s lives and livelihoods.

In consultation with a variety of interest groups and community leaders, The Nature Conservancy’s local Adirondack Chapter and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) have agreed to conserve and protect these lands, and the critical economic benefits they provide to local communities, as follows:

·      92,000 acres will continue to be working forests with sustainable logging;
·      65,000 acres will be transferred to the state to become part of the Forest Preserve; and
·      1,100 acres will be set aside for community purposes in three towns.

The plan does more than represent our collective commitment to clean air, clean water and healthy forests for current and future generations. It meets the needs of loggers, business owners, wildlife, and the tens of thousands of local residents and millions of visitors who use Adirondack forests for recreation.

The lands touch six counties and 27 towns in the Adirondacks, with more than 80% of the property in these five towns: North Hudson, Minerva, Newcomb, Indian Lake and Long Lake. All of the towns have already approved the state’s anticipated expenditures from the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) toward related land and conservation easement purchases. The EPF is a dedicated fund, replenished each year with money generated through an existing real estate transfer tax, for environmental programs, ranging from open space and farmland protection, to zoos and botanical gardens, to recycling programs and waterfront redevelopment programs.

More than half of the land will continue to be available for sustainable timber harvest operations. Some of it will become part of the Forest Preserve, thereby unlocking recreation and business opportunities associated with the tourism industry—an industry recognized as a vital growth sector of the upstate economy by the North Country Regional Economic Development Council. Indeed, protecting these Adirondack forests and their vast water resources adds immeasurable value to the region as a major travel and recreation destination. Ten million people visit the Adirondacks annually, supporting one out of every five jobs in the area, and visitors spend more than $1 billion at local inns, restaurants, convenience stores and outdoor outfitters.

All of the property to be transferred to the state has been closed to the public for more than a century, but will become open and available in the coming years to everyone for hunting, hiking, fishing and other recreational uses, and some new snowmobile trails will be created. Included are some of the most scenic places in the Adirondacks, such OK Slip Falls, in Indian Lake; Essex Chain of Lakes, in Minerva and Newcomb; Thousand Acre Swamp, in Edinburg; wild upper reaches of our state’s longest river, the Hudson, and key tributaries like the Cedar and Indian Rivers, in multiple towns; and Boreas Ponds, at the southern edge of the High Peaks Wilderness, in North Hudson. For the first time ever, these places will soon be accessible to you, your friends and neighbors, and everyone who finds inspiration in natural places.

The project also adds value to the timber industry. As of December 2010, the 92,000 acres of commercial timberlands, now owned by a company who bought the land as a socially responsible investment, have been protected by a land preservation agreement with the state called a conservation easement. The easement keeps the land in sustainable forestry, allows for continued recreational leasing, and secures some public access to places identified as important to local communities, including snowmobile connector trails already open for use in nearly a dozen towns. The rural town of Newcomb is already experiencing economic benefits from new snowmobile trails. Timber harvested from the easement lands continues to supply green certified pulpwood to the Finch Paper mill in Glens Falls, which employs approximately 750 workers.

We anticipate key properties to transfer to NYSDEC in the coming years. In the meantime most of the land will continue to be leased for exclusive use by about two dozen private hunt clubs. Though hunt clubs will have to relocate to privately owned forests, the plan allows for a 10-year transition, ensures members will still have these lands to hunt on, and expands recreational opportunities for local residents and visitors currently shut out of the forest.

This balanced approach to conserving the former Finch lands is an investment in people as much as it is an investment in nature. We are bolstering the economy while also protecting clean air, clean water, and wildlife habitat.

For more information about this project, including video links, press releases and news clips, visit www.nature.org/heartofadirondacks.

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Michael Carr is executive director of the Adirondack Chapter of Nature Conservancy